Running

I like to run.  I never used to.  In fact I would whine (albeit quietly) when my swim coach wanted to add laps to our dry land workouts.  Hated it.  Hated them.  Hate.

So, on the cusp of turning 30, I decided I wanted to start to run.  Looking back, I am not sure why.  Perhaps I started thinking about the things I wanted to accomplish in my life... my bucket list.  I decided I wanted to run in a marathon.  Fast forward a few years...

First, I came to my senses: I decided a half would be adequate.  Really... 26 miles?  That is insane.

Anyway - I have made it my goal this year, a mere few years before I hit my next age milestone (29 again, of course) to accomplish this task.  I have selected a race.  I have found the website.  I have checked the date with my husband.  They even have kid fun run races while I am running...

I have not registered.

Why is it that my heart is beating out of my chest just TO REGISTER!  YIKES.

I have given myself a deadline to register.  I will and can do this.  I am week 3 into my training, so I know I can do it physically (I mean really - they give you 3.5 hours to complete the race - I could walk fast and do it in that time) It is just squeezing the trigger.

If I wait until everything is lines up perfectly, I may just miss this opportunity and kill my goal.  Is this what I want?

Got duped today

So, I have been doing CrossFit for a few months now.  We are participating in an Advocare 24 day cleanse and are on day 16.  I am feeling good.  Looking better and my weight is down almost 12 pounds.  Feeling strong, but I digress.
So we are going to do Fran today.  For those of you who don't know, some of CrossFit's more common workouts are named.  Some are named after men, some women and some for the event they are created for.  Real funny names sometimes.  Filthy Fifty is one of my personal favorites.  No, not the workout, the name.  Big difference.
Anyway, today was Fran.  21-15-9 of thrusters and pull-ups.  I can't do a pull-up, so I do ring rows.
We had a bunch of ladies in our class today which means the 15# bars went fast.  I ended up with what I thought was a 33# bar.  No prob.  Since this was my first Fran, I was told to start at 35#, then add weight as I needed.  So I tossed on 2 2.5#, tested the weight and called it good.
Away we went.  The first 21 thrusters were ok, the second 15 were tougher, by the last 9 I thought I just may die.
But I finished.  5:56.  Not too shabby for my first Fran.
We were stretching after and noticed my trainer had put my time and 50# next to my name.  I thought "Sure, that looks good, but I need to come clean and let her know I only did 38#."
Still stretching, it dawns on me that what I thought was a 33# bar that I grabbed, was actually a 45# bar, so I really did do the 50# thrusters.
Ha.  I would never have willingly done that much, but I still did it.

Funny.  Maybe I should always blindly pick my bars.  Never know what you really can do when you get your mind out of the way!

Hijacked from another

So, I havent posted for a while, although I have tons of ideas running around my brain, so I thought I would copy something I wrote for another blog and add it here. This is about my first triathlon super sprint I did on Mothers Day this year. 

*****

So, I was having lunch with a few girlfriends back in March and one of them mentioned doing the trigirl in May. It sounded really fun, so I signed up. I chose the first timers wave, I didn’t want to get manhandled (or rather woman-handled) too much this first time out.


 The weeks before the event, I set out to train as best I could. In between CrossFit workouts, I spent my days off riding, running, and going from bike to run as often as I could. The day of the race, I woke at 4:45am, got in the car with the husband and kids and off we went. We arrived at 6am, giving me a good 45 min to set up transition, double check transistion, and warm up. Heading down towards the start I was freezing. Looking at the water, I wondered why I thought this may be fun. Once the air horn blew, we were off. 


I was about midway deep in our wave of 98. We got in the water and I figured, “lets go”, so I scrambled my way in between the crowd, getting to a position where I didn’t have anyone directly in front of me. The water was choppy and my nice pretty freestyle was not happening. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t stay in a straight line, so I did what I could and swam breaststroke for the majority of the swim. That was hard. Fortunately, one of the many ways to volunteer at this tri is to be a water-helper-outer person. I am sure there is a more formal name, but these are the guys who are waiting in the water on the boat ramp to help pull you out at the completion of your swim. I was really glad to see him. He pulled and I was out. Whew! Off to transition and the bike I went. 


 The bike leg was fun… lots of downhill… exhilarating… then we had to go back up…. not quite as exhilarating… but such is life. By the completion of the bike, I had calculated that my time goal was within reach as long as I just kept going. 


Transition from bike to run was entertaining. My legs were jello and it took a good half mile to feel normal again. My feet were wet too. This was my hardest leg. So close to finish, yet so long to go. I had to keep repeating to myself over and over, “Not much longer”, “breathe”, “I can do this”. And I did. 


 I had a little comic relief on the way to the finish. I could see the finish line banner and I was going to give whatever I had left. I started to pass and someone and shouted “on your left” . When I got even with her, she looked at me, yelled “You are not passing me!” and she picked up her pace (I think i will see the image of her for the rest of my life... priceless). I told her we will finish together, hard, holding nothing back. And we did, she held to my pace for a while, but did fall back. I finished strong. I didn’t achieve my time goal, but got darn close. I am proud of my performance. I have only been training seriously since November and only recently added a strength regimen.  I am excited to see how much I can improve in the weeks and months ahead.  I am currently shopping for a road bike and looking forward to my next sprint tri in October.

Life in 2012

Nov 7, 2010 was my last post. Since no one reads this anyway, it doesnt really matter. So lets just say my last post was last week, k?

So now I have no kids at home, no ailing parent to comfort, I am aimlessly wondering what am I to do now? Could I finally finish moving into my house? Could I finally finish those nagging projects I started oh so long ago? Can I finally focus on taking care of myself? Hmmmm. Interesting thoughts.

On that thought, I have been stalking pinterest.com lately. Wow, talk about crack for the soul. I literally spent 3 hours on that site yesterday looking for ideas on making a valentines wreath (I blame my mother in law - back to that in a minute), and I found those and many many more cool things that me, a relatively well educated woman in my (ahem) mid thirties could easily do. I have a few crafty skills. I can do this.... I already made a few cookies from that site. Mostly they were good.

Anyway, back to my mother in law. She is very sweet. In fact, that is why she is to blame for the wreath thing. While she was at my house last fall watching my kids while I was taking care of my Dad, she bought a fall wreath. It was really pretty and looked really nice on my door. So, when Christmas came, I actually made a wreath. No, it wasnt my idea, I totally plagerized it, but it turned out really nice. Made one for my mom and one of her friends too. So now that I have taken my decorations down, I am in need of the next door hanger. I have my standard, no holiday, boring, blah one. But I don't want that one. I am finally feeling not blah, so I believe my front door should reflect that. Strange logic, I know, but that is how I roll.

I found some really cute ideas. Some fabric that look easy to one with felt that looks like it would take a long time... don't know if I am into that. I am still a short attention span kind of girl.

I finally finished a quilt for my mom for Christmas. I thought it was really pretty. I wanted to keep it for myself, but that would be wrong. I have found a pattern for the next one. I have to decide if this one I will keep, or if I will give it to my brother for his wedding. That would be nice of me... wonder if I will be nice. I have like 11 months to be naughty before I have to be nice again.... at least that is how I think it works... Noel may agree... he he.

So, carry on. Maybe I will do this regularly now. I think that it would be cool to give a copy of this blog to my kids one day so that they have proof to give the doctors when they want me committed... he he.